Flood damage at Eaton building totaled $3 million, city report says

As Eaton Corp. considers a possible move of its division headquarters from Milwaukee to Wauwatosa, a new city report reveals that last summer's flooding caused over $3 million in damage to the company's offices.

That figure is mentioned in the city's proposed application for a federal grant to pay for flood control projects. The Common Council's Community and Economic Development Committee will review the application at Monday's meeting.

The flooding, in the Lincoln Creek watershed, caused damage in three consecutive summers of 2008, 2009 and 2010, the report said.

The report said last July's floods caused over $3 million in damage at Eaton's offices, at 4201 N. 27th St., which house the headquarters of Eaton's industrial controls division.

Eaton executives have for years been considering a move of that operation, which has 135 white-collar employees.

Two weeks ago, the Milwaukee County Research Park agreed to sell 9.6 acres to Irgens Development Partners LLC, which would develop a 90,000-square-foot office and laboratory building for Eaton. If that $15 million building is developed, its financing would include $5.5 million in city funds that would be repaid through the project's property taxes.

The financing also would include a $20 million grant of federal New Markets Tax Credits, which would be sold to fund a $4 million low-interest loan.

As I reported Friday, the credits are designed to encourage investment in lower income areas. While Wauwatosa is an affluent suburb, the census tract where the research park is located includes low-income residents of nearby nursing homes operated by Milwaukee County. That quirk qualifies the census tract for the tax credits.

By the way, the city grant application also says last summer's flood damage to the neighboring DRS Power & Control Technologies Inc., 4265 N. 30th St., totaled $22 million. DRS has around 400 employees at its facility, where the company has made improvements and added jobs in recent years.

The flood control plan calls for building a berm along the southern property line of the DRS site, and separating the basements of the DRS and Eaton buildings that are now connected.

It also calls for other flood control projects at the nearby former Tower Automotive Inc. site, now known as the Century City development, where Talgo is located, and at the Oak Creek basin, near S. 13th and W. College Ave.

All the flood control projects would cost an estimated $3.8 million, with the city seeking $2.25 million in federal grants. The remaining $1.55 million would come from the affected businesses, the city and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

Commercial Real Estate News

For decades, Brookfield's Blue Mound Road has been the Milwaukee area's busiest retail corridor, extending westward from its anchor at Brookfield Square mall to Barker Road.

Now, that landscape is changing, with five major retail projects under construction — including Brookfield Square's latest redevelopment phase, and the Von Maur department store-anchored retail center known as The Corners.

Blue Mound Road features dozens of shopping centers and stand-alone retail buildings on the three-mile stretch between Moorland and Barker Roads. Those buildings have long enjoyed high occupancy rates, said Bruce Westling, principal at NAI MLG Commercial and a veteran retail leasing broker.(13)